The telecom industry needs robotic process automation (RPA) more than ever before. The industry has grown at a rapid pace over the past 20 years. It forms the foundation of every aspect of human life, from work to play. In the U.S. in 2020 over 62% of households had only wireless voice service, rather than a landline. Of those households with a landline, over 34% also had at least one mobile phone.

Telecom has become more than just a means to call a friend or business associate. People use their phones to shop, locate businesses, order takeout and keep track of their health and fitness. Businesses use mobile technology to keep in touch with employees no matter where they are, to inspire collaboration, and more. Telecom companies can keep up with this overwhelming demand with RPA.

Challenges Faced by Telecom

Aside from the fact that demand for telecom has grown in the past two decades, telecom companies face additional challenges. They need to offer their service at the most affordable prices and their service has to be the fastest, all while maintaining a high level of innovation. This has created an incredibly competitive environment in the telecom industry.

At the same time telecom companies must:

Many of these challenges, and telecom operations in general, rely heavily on processes. And many of these processes are ideal candidates for RPA.

What is RPA?

RPA is software technology that is specifically designed to perform repetitive, rules-based tasks that are extremely time-consuming and error-prone when humans perform them manually. RPA operates in a similar fashion to its human counterparts. These software bots can be programmed to perform a variety of back-office and front-office tasks such as:

The automation of these tasks has a significant impact on many processes within telecom. Processes are performed more quickly and with fewer errors, and they free up employees’ time to focus on tasks of higher value, such as direct customer engagement, collaboration, and innovation.

Use Cases for RPA in Telecom

There are many areas of telecom that can benefit from RPA, including those that directly affect customers and those that relate to back-office processes. Here are some use cases that demonstrate the impact of RPA.

First Call Resolution (FCR)

When a customer calls in with concerns about their service or account, it can take a significant amount of time for an agent to retrieve the required customer information, enter data and update information as needed. This can make customer calls take a long time and it can be challenging to address all of a customer’s issues in a single call.

With RPA, the retrieval of information, updating of customer information, and data entry can be automated, making them go much faster and eliminating human error. This helps the agent focus on customer engagement and resolve issues faster, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction.

Responding to Partner and Customer Queries

Telecom companies typically have external partners who sell their services, and it is common for these partners to have questions and concerns. RPA can relieve human workers of many of the tasks associated with partner queries by scanning and interpreting emails, answering simple queries, and notifying a human worker of any queries that are complex in nature.

RPA is capable of performing the same tasks when it comes to customer queries, making customer service run more smoothly. The result is human workers who can work more efficiently and effectively to resolve partner and customer issues and provide better service, ensuring happier partners and customers.

Tracking Competitor Prices

Since telecom companies typically have their pricing structure and plan online, it is possible to determine what your competitors’ prices are and to monitor those prices on an ongoing basis. However, this is difficult to do manually. RPA can relieve human workers of the burden of tracking competitor prices by doing it for them. This is an asset to telecom companies trying to remain competitive within their industry.

Make RPA Work for You

The benefits of RPA in telecom are clear. The key is to get RPA working for you as efficiently as possible. To accomplish this, it is important to assess your operational objectives and determine where RPA can have the most impact in your organization. This makes it possible to customize an RPA solution that will suit the unique needs of your company.

Book a discovery call with a member of Tangentia’s automation team today and find out what RPA can do for your telecom company.